I was one of the original Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, filmed in Munich in 1970. At that time, there weren't many British actors who were short (I am 4ft 2in), so six of the actors were British and they used one Maltese actor, another from Turkey, one from Germany, and one woman. There were 10 of us in all. The director Mel Stuart sometimes got very frustrated telling us what to do in English and then trying to explain to the Maltese, German and Turkish actors what he wanted as well.

When we first arrived in Munich the choreographer Howard Jeffrey showed us these amazing dance routines, but he had to change them to suit our short legs. The Oompa Loompas went on to do various other TV, film and stage shows, but there are now only three of us alive. Some of the Oompa Loompas were very old - one was in his 70s back then. It was only since the fantasy films came of age, when they wanted little people to portray goblins, elves and robots, that a lot of short people gave up lucrative day jobs to be in the movies. Unfortunately, the only work they can get nowadays is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pantomimes at Christmas. Everybody is using computer graphics. Even the new Chocolate Factory uses just one man - a very good actor called Deep Roy - for all the Oompa Loompas. He will be cloned by computers so it will look as if there are about 300 Oompa Loompas, to be as faithful as possible to the book, in which there are hundreds and hundreds of them, apparently from a Pygmy tribe in Africa.

I haven't seen the new movie yet. Tim Burton can be very dark and there must be many dark moments in it. Wonka is a part very few actors could play. Gene Wilder was fantastic. But I also love Johnny Depp's work. I would say that in the 1970s and now in 2005 they got the only actor in each era who could play it.

I was in the first Star Wars film as a Jawa in the desert, I have played in Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part 1, I've been a goblin in two of the Harry Potter films, I've done Flash Gordon and Willow. Looking back, Willy Wonka was my first and favourite film. One of the songs we sang in the movie was called Pure Imagination and that, to me, sums up Roald Dahl. He will be remembered as a classic children's writer.

· Rusty Goffe. The original 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will be shown on Boomerang, Sky TV, this Saturday.